Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) swung to a loss in the first quarter, missing analysts’ forecast. Yingli Green Energy and its subsidiaries are mainly engaged in the design, development, marketing, manufacturing and installation and sale of photovoltaic products in the People’s Republic of China and overseas markets.

Results: Reported a loss of $45 million (29 cents per diluted share) in the quarter. Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited had a net income of $56.2 million or 35 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 5.2% to $500 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited fell short of the mean analyst estimate of a loss of 19 cents per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $448.8 million.

Quoting Management: “Despite the tough market situation and seasonal impact, our module shipment reached another historical high in the first quarter of 2012 as we stayed committed to existing markets and expanded into new and emerging markets,” said Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy. “Although excessive module supply, potential subsidy adjustments in Europe and the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations in the U.S. continued to drive module price down, we achieved a gross margin of 7.8% in the first quarter due to our notable cost reduction efforts and premium brand.””We experienced exceptionally strong demand in Germany and the U.S., which accounted for approximately 80% of our total revenues in the first quarter. Meanwhile, our remarkable sales performance was partially benefited from our research and development and after-sales service center in Madrid, Spain, through which we have provided more convenient and comprehensive service to European customers. Shipments to China were comparably small due to the seasonally soft demand in the first quarter. However, we believe that shipments to China will gradually pick up in the second quarter and the third quarter supported by the acceleration of utility scale projects in western China and the recently announced 1.7 GW projects under the Golden Sun program. We expect approximately 30% of our revenues to come from Chinese customers in this year by leveraging our solid customer relations and pioneer position in China.””In addition, the successful issuance of the 1.5 billion RMB-denominated medium-term notes in early May strengthened our cash position, optimized our borrowing structure and reduced our financing cost. The successful issuance further demonstrated investors’ strong confidence in our long-term growth.”

Key Stats:

After beating analyst estimates for the two previous quarters, the company fell short of forecasts. In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, it topped the mark by 58 cents, and in the third quarter of the last fiscal year, it was ahead by 12 cents.

Looking Forward: The average estimate for the second quarter is down from a loss of 13 cents per share ninety days ago to a loss of 14 cents, indicating that analysts are increasingly pessimistic about the company’s next quarter performance. Down from a loss of 46 cents per share ninety days ago, the average estimate for the fiscal year is now a loss of 58 cents.